Last weekend was Labour day weekend, marking the end of the summer holiday season and the last long weekend before the hard labour really begins. I’ll be cutting back my hotel hours and spending many of my days supply-teaching in the local schools. With the extra day off this weekend my brother and his girlfriend decided to do as the Mainland West-Coast locals do and hop on a ferry across to the island for some family time, although I’m convinced…
There is nothing quite like a storm when you live by the ocean. Admittedly our little piece of the ocean is often so calm it could be mistaken for a lake but on days like to day it comes alive. We have had rain non-stop for almost four days straight and I have been anticipating the storm since day one when the ocean turned steely grey, reflecting the clouds above and every now and again the wind picked up, creating…
Overlooking much of central Winnipeg is the statue of Eternal Youth, holding his beacon of light above the city to remind us that age is just a number and we can remain young at heart. It’s almost a paradox after the harsh Winter we faced in Winnipeg this year, that Eternal Youth is often said to be granted to the inhabitants of Paradise. It does however seem that with the arrival of June, the summer is at last approaching, the…
This year has certainly been a year of British national celebration with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics in London, even the Euro Soccer Cup must have generated a lot of flag waving, yet unlike many other nations we do not have a National Day… A patron saints day, yes, even a Queen’s birthday along with many other traditions which only take place in the UK. I am deeply disappointed to have missed out on spending time in the UK…
Not being much of a wine connoisseur, despite my years in France, my review of the Winnipeg Wine Festival is more of a wine tasting guide for beginners. When it comes to wine I usually just go with the flow – and it does seem to be the case that the more it flows, the better it tastes! Living in the small town of Ashern, up until May 5th, I had not experienced a night out in The Peg, 2 hours…
I don’t know who was more excited, me or the children, when Michael Manyeagles visited the Ashern Early Years School to share with us a bit about his craft and to give us the opportunity to try it out for ourselves. I must admit to having been eagerly awaiting his visit for a while because I just love the beautiful soapstone pieces that I have seen in various craft fairs and local markets (the Forks for example) and was interested…
Every year, for one weekend only, Winnipeg opens up the doors of its public buildings to the commonfolk, offering guided tours interspersed with historical facts and local legend. Although the Manitoba Legislative Building is actually accessible to the public on an almost daily basis, it is not often that we get the opportunity to hear some of the stories contained within its four walls (or whatever magical number of walls it happens to have) and even rarer that we might…
Why I think Winnipeg trumps New York and Paris for shopping – Between climbing the steps to the Sacre Coeur and the bustling streets of the Latin Quarter, or watching the sunset at the top of the Empire state Building and a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty; I‘m amazed that anyone finds time to do any shopping when in New York or Paris. During my year in Paris I didn’t buy a single item of clothing, and shopping…
On the subject of typical Canadian pastimes, I thought I’d talk about our last few weekends in Winnipeg. Over the past few weeks we have been actively searching for a base, a new (or new to us) house in Manitoba’s capital, the city of Winnipeg. In Canada, one of the major techniques for selling houses is to hold an Open House. This means potential buyers just show up at the advertised time, without having to call ahead to arrange viewings…
Recently I appear to have been suffering from writer’s block. There is an abundance of topics which I could choose to write about, from personal experiences and current events, through to tackling a typically Canadian pastime or a newly discovered (to me at least!) location within Manitoba; yet I cannot seem to decide upon an interesting and informative subject to relay to you about Canada. So, to help me get some ideas, who better to ask than the locals? During…